Mistakes last night - What to do about Sunday?

[breadandcheese]

Last night was a disgrace. We were uninspiring, put up no fight. I ate at the club last night and in all honesty, the beef had more fight than the players. Craig talks about us playing well in the first half, but I didn't see that. Quite frankly, it was the wrong team tonight and he should have resisted the clamour to keep an unchanged side from Watford (where I maintain that we didn't play that well).

So what was the difference between the Burnley game and the Watford game. Easy, Watford were at home and so had to come at us, allowing us to exploit the space that this created. Burnley came for a point, sat back and worked damned hard. I have not seen us break down a team this season when they have sat back. Thus the team for Watford was no suitable for tonight (especially the subs bench - which lacked anything to change the game).

We are all slating the midfield today, but the truth is they were outnumbered by 5 very hard working Burnley players. Hughes & Kisnorbo couldn't win the battle, that meant the wingers had to drift inside to help out (so you cannot blame Sylla or Hamill for playing poorly). Thus any passes bypassed the midfield and became hoofball.

The only way to defeat a midfield 5 when you have 4, is to get your fullbacks bombing up the pitch to add extra width and support to the midfield. Johansson is unable to do this (he is a poor left-back) and Stearman (despite the rose-tinted specs because he is homegrown) is not the best at this. We should have played Sheehan and Maybury last night to have fullbacks running past the wingers.

De Vries and the frontmen have also been getting stick, but because we were unable to challenge Burnley's midfield, had very little to no service (I do not count hoofball as service).

McCarthy and Dublin played well, but then, they only had to contend with one front man (when Burnley decided to push forward every now and then).

In short, a bad tactical game by Levein tonight. I'm a great believer in playing a team to match your opponent. We did not do that last night, even though we knew how Burnley would play.

Now we have Coventry on Sunday. Levein should think very carefully about his team. We know how Coventry will line-up (no width, hoofball, etc). We should be able to beat that and counter it if organised properly.

My team for Cov would be

Henderson - I don't like Douglas's kicking

Stearman & Johansson as full backs again - Although they were poor last night, Coventry will play narrow with two large wingers charging into the box (Scowcroft and/or McSheffrey). Thus we will need height and strength at the full back positions to counter. I would have Maybury and/or Sheehan on the bench to allow us to change it should it not work.

Dublin & McCarthy as centre backs - They look fairly solid

Sylla & Wilcox as wingers - Not impressed with Hamill, he goes missing

Kisnorbo & Williams in the centre - Kisnorbo adds height & fight to the midfield (better than Joey) and |I feel Williams passing would be an asset (we could always bring Hughes on if need be)

Hammond & Hume up front - One word, pace